MOONFACE

Since January 2010, Spencer Krug has used Moonface as a venue for home-recorded instrumental and conceptual experimentation, expanding the ideas he developed collaboratively with Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown. Releases under this moniker have come quickly, each distinct from the other. The Dreamland EP and Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped were conceptual excursions merging instrumental and thematic fixations. After moving from Montreal to Helsinki, Krug teamed up with the Finnish band Siinai to create a lush rock record--2012's Heartbreaking Bravery--driven by the dark despair of a breakup. Staying in Helsinki, Krug set off on yet another creative departure, driven by a rediscovery of love and a reconsideration of the Moonface persona he'd created for himself. The quietly stunning Julia with Blue Jeans On is the fourth Moonface release, bringing a degree of intimacy and self-reflection unlike anything Krug has produced to date.

There are only two sonic elements on Julia: Spencer Krug's voice and his piano. Richly recorded, they interact seamlessly with one another. On the opening track "Barbarian," the piano unfolds with the hypnotic energy of Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert, Krug's right hand doubling his vocal melody. On the closing track "Your Chariot Awaits," Krug's voice recedes after a minute as the piano swells for an extended showcase with modern classical undertones. After nearly a decade, across a number of guises, we are well-acquainted with Krug's inimitable town-crier vocals; on Julia, we are introduced to a facet of his musical skill that feels conservatory-trained. This is Krug as singer-songwriter, moving beyond star poses to a vision that is at once more elegant and comfortable.

Or, in Krug's own language, on "Barbarian II": "I have chewed through my beautiful narrative." Much of Julia is taken with this chewing. "Love the House You're In" opens by masquerading as self-pity, with a statement that reads like a press release from someone who's given up. "I regretfully withdraw my offer to try and improve myself," Krug gently sings, establishing a self-reflexive foundation upon which he builds the album's most universal, humanistic sentiment, and which he delivers via its most soaring melody.

Purposeful self-evaluation is one tactic for reinvention, but as Krug illustrates on Julia's title track, everyday occurrences can prove transformative as well. The sight of a woman, clad in denim, briefly visible at the bottom of a staircase, he learns, is capable of "obliterating everything I've ever written down." "Julia" is an ode in the classical sense, pivoting around the beauty inherent in the most simple, taken-for-granted sights. Krug acknowledges this, opening the song by admitting that "it's a madman's game, making the commonplace unreal." What he leaves out in this admission, however, is the key to the countless charms of Julia with Blue Jeans On: by expertly playing this ridiculous game, he can erase the madness that spawned it.
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Moonface is back this September with a new EP called City Wrecker. Preview the new release by watching the a beautiful black and white video directed by rairai.fi of the title track above or here on YouTube / Vevo. Get more insight into the album below via Spencer Krug himself.

I recently made some more recordings under the name Moonface, which take the form of a 5 song EP called City Wrecker, and run at around half an hour.

City Wrecker is the title track of the ep. I wrote it before Miley Cyrus released “Wrecking Ball”, but I cannot prove it. Oh well. In describing the song (and maybe the whole EP) I would say it’s the aesthetic opposite of “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus, which is not to say that’s a good thing or a bad thing, just an apple for you to hold up beside your orange. Regardless of all that, my friend Eetu, who recorded this EP, still likes to call the song “Wrecking Ball” and to sometimes call me Miley, but that’s okay cuz we’re buddies.

I lived in Finland for a couple of years, but now I live in a little town nestled in the woods of Vancouver Island. This is a recent move, and so City Wrecker represents the last album I completed in Helsinki. Maybe I will go back to that big icy lighthouse, and all the lovely weirdos within I have come to love, one day, but for now I have used it up.

I have a tendency to wreck the places I live. I am a luster scraper; a green grass imaginer. I wreck places emotionally, as in, even though they stay the same objectively, they somehow worsen in my heart. I wreck their meaning, and so ultimately their function. No more crackling inspiration. I waste my own time. I get bored. I turn gardens into dust bowls.

And I am a city wrecker not just for myself, but for those close to me as well, for my wrecking is a quiet and creeping poison that is hard to identify; hard to see coming through my mist of moods. I fuss, and then still am dissatisfied, making my loved ones feel sad and helpless, angry and confused, and perhaps most terribly, responsible. Though of course they are blameIess and magnificent.

I suppose this is why I have moved so many times in my life. It is not a good characteristic, and one I should work toward eradicating from my personality. But having regret is also unhealthy. So, I am Popeye?

Anyway, all of the songs on this ep, in one way or another, are about places. Going in and going out. Regret and hope. The past and the future. Ducking out early from your own farewell party. That’s why it’s called City Wrecker.

-Spencer Krug

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CITY WRECKER TRACK LISTING:
1. The Fog
2. City Wrecker
3. Running in Place with Everyone
4. Helsinki Winter 2013
5. Daughter of a Dove

Before Moonface starts his European tour in Finland tonight, see a new live video of Spencer playing title track “Julia with Blue Jeans On” in London last fall at St. Pancras Old Church directed by Phil Poole. Watch the video above or on our YouTube page here.

Click read more to see reviews of the new album and ticket links to upcoming Moonface‘s shows starting tonight in Hameenlinna, Finland at Suisto-Club with newly announced US dates starting February 26th, below.

Spencer Krug‘s latest album as Moonface, Julia with Blue Jeans On is out today. For Moonface‘s newest, Krug has stripped down his sound to just a piano and his voice, leaving the effects, overdubs, and electronic elements out. The new album, Julia with Blue Jeans On, is Krug’s self-described love record and displays an angle of Spencer’s music not heard before.

Also premiering today, see a new video by Spencer for the song “Barbarian”, which incorporates camcorder footage from the 1980’s of three children with some pretty sweet moves (see Spencer far right). Watch the video above or here on YouTube.

Spencer Krug‘s latest album as Moonface, Julia with Blue Jeans On is out next week and we’re excited to share that Pitchfork Advance is streaming the record in full here. In a review today from The 405, they write that the album “reflects both Krug’s realised ambitions in himself and see[s] the beauty in simplicity.”

Click read more to see dates and ticket links to Moonface‘s solo piano shows and watch a beautiful session via Paper Bag Records of Moonface’s song “Love the House You’re In” below.Read the rest of this entry »